“White grapes are very attractive but when it comes to dessert people generally like cake with icing.”
This morning my car windows are glistening in the sun. They are covered with thick frost. I am so glad I don’t have to go anywhere. The sun will do the defrosting.
My lights had been eaten by a spawn of Satan. A wire was chewed through so all 100 lights got tossed. I have only one set left which I suspect won’t be enough. I’m thinking the spawn will be back so I’m going to buy a few more sets. I wish, contrary to the season, that I could make the wire give a small jolt to the spawn.
When I was a kid, all our Christmas tree lights were big, colored bulbs which got really hot. We used to have to turn them on and off by crawling under the tree to get at the outlet to push in or pull out the plugs. In our windows were candles with orange bulbs. In the picture window was a five bulb candelabra. We had to twist all the bulbs on and off. Turning on was easy but turning off hurt because of the heat of the bulbs. We used to wet our fingers before we turned those bulbs off. I remember we raced to the windows wanting to be first at turning on those windows lights. We never raced to turn them off.
When I watch all the Christmas baking shows, I always wish I could be as talented as the bakers are in decorating cakes and cookies. We used to frost our sugar cookies but they were all red or green. Santa had no beard. We did add jimmies, either red, green or multi-colored to the tops, but that needed no talent. All we had to do was shake the bottles and try not to be too heavy handed.
One year I bought a decorating set with an icing bag for the frosting and a variety of icing tips for the bag. I lined up my sugar cookies and filled the bag with white icing so I could outline each cookie before I frosted it. It was a total mess. I squeezed the bag so much the icing came out the top and not through the tip. My clothes were covered in icing. The counter was covered in icing. The cookies had blogs of white icing.
I scraped off the icing and frosted the cookies in not only the traditional green and red but also gold, really yellow but gold sounds so much classier. Santa was all red. The trees were all green. The reindeer were brown. Brown? The box of food coloring told me how: 2 red, 2 yellow and 1 blue. I had become a maestro of colors!
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
November 30, 2018 at 1:54 pm
The opposite weather here today, windy, rainy and above freezing. Not nice at all but the wind has finally changed direction so it doesn’t hit my cottage. They say it’ll turn back again tomorrow so I can only hope that the wind at least calms down.
I can’t remember anyone frosting anything when I was a kid, I do remember however that one could buy cookies and cakes with frosting and they were usually much more expensive than the ones without frosting. Now days lots of people at least puts frosting on the gingerbread.
I laughed out loud when reading about Your frosting experience 🙂 🙂
I don’t think they’ve started to show christmas baking shows yet but I guess they’ll start this weekend. I’m not a fan of any cooking show but I must admit that I do like to see those professionals get those perfect results.
Have a great day!
Christer.
November 30, 2018 at 6:11 pm
Christer,
We had sun a good part of the day then it got cloudy and colder. I thought it might rain, but it didn’t though it may rain tonight and will definitely rain tomorrow night.
A big part of the Christmas tradition is making cookies. Sugar cookies in particular are the most popular. They are the ones cut into Christmas shapes then frosted. I was young when my mother had me help her frost those cookies. I now frost my own.
It was quite the mess. I still have my decorating set and haven’t used it since.Maybe I should give it another try.
The Christmas baking shows I’ve been watching have many episodes. At the end of each episode, one of the bakers is eliminated based on the results of the bake then we get to the finals. Three’s bakers are left to bake it out.
Have a great day!
November 30, 2018 at 2:51 pm
The day has finally arrived – the Official put the tree up for the Holiday day.
I was fussing before work moving stuff off surfaces and music sets in to my study, in anticipation of relocating furniture this evening and setting about decoration in the family room.
I have a new nativity from the Holy Land which needs to be included and the usual array of new ornaments that Mrs MDH and I accumulated in our travels this year.
The SD card full of carols and holiday songs is ready for the music system and as they once said “Thunderbirds are….GO”
November 30, 2018 at 6:19 pm
My Dear Hedley,
Now you have inspired me to bring up the dining room tree, an ugly scrub pine. I keep it decorated in all vintage ornaments. I won’t buy my living room tree until next week.
When I travel, I always try to find an ornament as a reminder of my trip. My tree has Ghana, of course, Italy, Hungary, Ireland, England, Morocco and Russia. There my be more, but that’s what I remember.
I love it: “Thunderbirds are….GO”
November 30, 2018 at 4:26 pm
I usually don’t even try to bake cookies except for occasional experiments (hint: wholemeal curry cookies is not a good idea). As always I rely on my friends who know that I love to get home-made cookies for Christmas.
I slowly admit that Christmas is coming and bought an Advent calendar.
November 30, 2018 at 6:22 pm
Birgit,
I figure I’d never think to put wholemeal and curry together. That does sound awful.
I get cookies from my friend and give some to her. My sisters gives me peanut butter balls and I make her fudge. I like the reciprocal giving.
My friends sent me a chocolate Advent calendar`.
December 1, 2018 at 2:09 am
I’m so glad that I now don’t have to try wholemeal curry cookies 🙂 🙂
December 1, 2018 at 8:28 pm
I totally agree. They sound gross.
November 30, 2018 at 7:34 pm
Hi Kat,
When my friend Leona was alive, she would enlist me in her seasonal baking spree. She did shortbread cookies, molded shortbread cookies, springli cookies, fried cookies that you had to dip an iron in the batter and stick the the battery iron into a pot of boiling oil, rum balls, chocolate peanut butter balls, baklava.
One year, I found myself sitting on her kitchen floor with her not yet 3 year old granddaughter as we splodged various bits of decorative edible things on shortbread cookies. I looked around and saw my friend sitting at the kitchen table next to the open back door, smoking a cigarette and drinking coffee. “Hey”, I said, “She’s your granddaughter. You should be down here making memories”. “Nah”, she said with a laugh, “you’re doing fine.” I don’t know if my friend’s granddaughter remembers that at all but, obviously, I do.
The day started out promising sunshine. I took the dogs for a nice walk which I haven’t been able to do because I’ve been suffering from Creeping Osmosis all week. But shortly after we returned home, the sun disappeared again. Oh, well.
Enjoy the day.
November 30, 2018 at 8:21 pm
Hi Caryn,
I always make orange cookies. They were my mother’s favorite and are also my friend Clare’s favorite. They remind he of her mother’s orange cake. I make snickerdoodles, sugar cookies, springli, fudge and date nut bread.
Kids remember. My sister’s grandchildren love making and decorating cookies with my sister Moe. They remember year to year.
The sun was replaced by clouds which got darker and darker. It may rain tonight or tomorrow. It is a cold night.
Have a great day!